Cape Epic: mountain bike mud bath – in pictures

To all mountain bikers, the Cape Epic, a seven-day off-road stage race, calls to mind sweeping helicopter shots of perfect, dusty trails undulating off into the distance. Stage two of this year's edition showed that it's not all blue skies in South Africa. An overnight deluge saw the trails and fireroads become a quagmire, as many teams struggled to make it to the finish line

Former South African rugby union player Joel Stransky, competing in the 2014 edition of the race, is probably no stranger to mud baths. Whether they offered such comprehensive coverage of the body is up for debate, however